Poof! Paper Handouts are Digital

No More Paper Handouts

While at an event recently the speaker handed out a paper handout. After her presentation, some of the audience members were asking if the handout was available digitally. Using Google Keep I was able to digitize the handout and distribute it through Google Classroom in seconds.

Google Keep

I am a big fan of Google Keep. It is basically post-it notes. The app works offline and syncs to keep.google.com. It works with my Google account, which I am already logged into.

Take a Picture

One of the things I can do with Google Keep is take a picture into the note. I took a picture of the handout into a Google Keep note.

Grab Image Text

In Google Keep if you tap on the picture in the note it isolates the picture. The 3 dots “More options” icon allows you to “Grab image text.” Depending on how fast your internet is, any text in the picture will be “grabbed” out of the picture and placed in the note section as editable text.

Share

Click on the horizontal 3 dots icon in the lower right and choose “Send.” This gives you the option to “Copy to Google Doc.”

Google Doc

The Google Doc contains a picture of the handout and the text extracted from the handout. The formatting won’t be perfect, but you will not have to completely retype what was in the handout.

Google Classroom

My mantra is to get it in Google Drive. Once something is in Google Drive it is wicked easy to put it in Google Classroom. Click on the Drive icon in an assignment or announcement and attach the Google Doc that was created from Google Keep. If you choose “Students can view file” you can make your edits later. Share the information quickly, format later. If you want to give each student a copy, copies will not reflect editing changes so you will need to format the document before you assign it.